Putin wags a finger at Mutti OVER the past year, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has become the West’s diplomatic shield against Russia’s Vladimir Putin. That is partly because America’s Barack Obama is distracted and weakened by his midterm elections. It is also because nobody else in the European Union has the same...

EUROPEAN UNION countries loudly criticise Russia for creating frozen conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and, now, Ukraine. Yet they are quieter about their own case of Cyprus, an EU member with an unrecognised Turkish-Cypriot north. This frozen conflict is older: over 50 years have passed since clashes broke out between Turkish- and Greek-Cypriots, 40...

“SHAME! Shame! Shame!” roared the crowd when Ukraine’s leaders appeared at a recent ceremony honouring the Maidan victims. Protesters accused President Petro Poroshenko of breaking promises. A year after the “revolution of dignity” began, the politicians are being anything but dignified. A month has passed since the general election and...